Joanie Campbell-Smith was found in a burned vehicle after relatives reported that they could not reach her.
JACKSON, Ky. — The search for Joanie Campbell-Smith began when relatives could not reach her and ended with a Breathitt County jury convicting Fairley Napier, her former common-law husband, in a killing prosecutors said was driven by jealousy.
The case mattered in court not only because Campbell-Smith was found dead, but because of the way investigators said her body was treated after her death. Napier, 49, was convicted of murder, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and criminal mischief. Jurors recommended 45 years in prison. The case also put the couple’s children in the center of the investigation, including a daughter who told police her father admitted burning the body.
Campbell-Smith, 45, was from Pikeville and had roots in Hardshell. She was born Oct. 2, 1978, in Hazard, the daughter of Edward and Brenda Campbell. By January 2024, she had remarried and built a life apart from Napier, though the two still shared family ties. When she disappeared Jan. 4, state police started with a missing-person case. Investigators learned Napier was the last person known to have contact with her. That fact became the first point in a chain of proof that prosecutors later presented to jurors in Breathitt County.
The next major break came when police were told a burned vehicle had been found on Spicewood Road. The car matched the description of the one Campbell-Smith drove. Detectives found what appeared to be human remains inside. They also found the vehicle on property connected to logging by Napier. Nearby, investigators saw a skidder and dozer that belonged to him, according to the arrest citation described by local news reports. Police said the skidder appeared to have human remains and body tissue on it. The remains were sent to Frankfort for identification after the discovery.
For Campbell-Smith’s relatives, the disappearance soon became a homicide investigation. Police said they were told Campbell-Smith and Napier had children together and that she had said in the past that Napier had threatened to harm her. Their daughter later told investigators that Napier admitted he had burned the body. In court accounts of the case, the daughter said Napier told her he had become tired of seeing Campbell-Smith lying in the log yard and looking at her. Prosecutors treated that statement as one of the most direct pieces of evidence linking Napier to the crime.
Napier’s version was different. On the witness stand, he said he and Campbell-Smith had grown up together and had an on-and-off relationship from 1994 to 2022. He testified that the two met at a Jiffy Mart to talk and later went to another parking lot. According to his account, Campbell-Smith asked him to break a window in her vehicle so she would have an excuse to drive a Chevrolet Tahoe she had purchased with her new husband. Napier said the last time he saw her was at the Jiffy Mart. Prosecutors said that statement did not match the evidence.
Commonwealth’s Attorney General Miranda King told the jury that Napier shot Campbell-Smith at the second location. King said he bought a mattock, a sharp tool used for digging and breaking soil, after the vehicle’s doors locked. Prosecutors said Napier used the tool to get into the vehicle, then moved it to the property where it was later found. They said he dismembered and mutilated Campbell-Smith’s body inside the vehicle before setting it on fire. The state used the physical evidence from the scene, along with witness testimony, to argue that the killing and cleanup formed one continuous course of conduct.
The jury also heard about Napier’s actions after Campbell-Smith vanished. Prosecutors said he changed vehicles four times and bought a burner phone in the days after her disappearance. They also said he offered to help look for Campbell-Smith after the couple’s daughter said she could not get hold of her mother. Napier told people he was in a bad frame of mind after being accused of a crime, according to courtroom reporting. The state said he later admitted the killing to a friend and then to his daughter, creating a record of statements that undercut his testimony.
King argued that jealousy explained the killing. Campbell-Smith had remarried, and prosecutors said her new marriage angered Napier, though he also was seeing someone new. Testimony showed Napier’s girlfriend had shown him pictures of Campbell-Smith with her new husband. King said Campbell-Smith and her husband tried to keep the marriage secret because they believed Napier would react badly. The jury did not have to resolve every detail of the relationship to convict him, but the state used the marriage, the photos and the alleged threats to explain why Campbell-Smith became a target.
Campbell-Smith’s obituary listed her husband as Arthur Smith Jr. of Pikeville and named her son, daughter, two stepsons, sister, nieces and great-niece among survivors. Her visitation was held Dec. 27, 2024, and her funeral followed Dec. 28 at Deaton Funeral Home Chapel in Jackson. She was buried in Noble Cemetery at Hardshell. Those family details became part of the public record around a criminal case that often centered on the condition of the vehicle, the evidence on logging equipment and the words jurors heard attributed to Napier.
Napier rejected a plea deal in February before the case went to trial. The jury later found him guilty on all four charges tied to Campbell-Smith’s death and the destruction of evidence. The recommended sentence included 30 years for murder and five years each for tampering with physical evidence, abuse of a corpse and criminal mischief. A judge is scheduled to hold formal sentencing May 8. Until then, the recommendation remains a jury decision awaiting final action from the court.
Currently, Napier was convicted and awaiting sentencing in Breathitt County. Campbell-Smith’s death, first reported as a disappearance after Jan. 4, 2024, now stands as a murder case with a jury verdict, a recommended 45-year sentence and one remaining court date on May 8.
Author note: Last updated April 28, 2026.